The European Local Energy Assistance (ELENA) facility was reinforced as an organization May 2, 2017 by a new delegation agreement between the European Commission and the European Investment Bank. ELENA is a European hub in the areas of energy efficiency. The facility provides grant funding to support the preparation of investment programmes in energy efficiency, the distribution of renewables, and developments in sustainable urban transport. The new agreement provides ELENA with €30 million to continue the project.
Since being founded in 2009, the project has succeeded in facilitating energy renovations of thousands of private housing units in the north of France, funded necessary infrastructure to upgrade Barcelona’s bus fleet to low-emission buses, and planned investments in the heat recovery of industrial waste heat in existing district heating networks in the Netherlands.
With a total of €100 million in support from the EU, ELENA has been able to invest €4 billion into sustainability projects across the EU.